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Inspiration :: Thank Goodness for SLPs!

In our building, we are SUPER fortunate to have 3 amazing speech-language pathologists. While this may seem like a luxury to many districts who don’t even have 1 whole SLP to themselves, our ladies still stay extremely busy! Our building is primary low-income, so a lot of our students need language interventions (wait, you mean they’re not just “speech” teachers!?)

Most days, I don’t know what I would do without our SLPs! Sometimes being a social worker in a school can make me feel like an outsider, but these ladies know exactly what it’s like to balance caseloads, IEP meetings, and medicaid billing, on top of the “usual” school duties. The other day, one of them posted this article to her Facebook. I thought it hit the nail on the head in terms of what working with SLPs is like and thought I ‘d share it with you all. Hopefully it’ll bring a smile to your face!

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Quote :: Being a Rebel

Steve Jobs Quote

I’ve written a post before about how to help kids who break the mold – who don’t fit in and who fight the way that things are “supposed to be.” Call them stubborn, headstrong, spirited, whatever you want. Regardless of the term, these kids have the potential to make working in a school exhausting! Yet these are the very kids who have the potential to take what we know as a human race and stretch the boundaries. These are the visionaries, the trail-blazers, the innovators.

As a kid, my parents would both tell you that I was a troublemaker. They recently gave me some letters I had written to Santa as a child and rather than give the traditional, “For Christmas I want…” list, I instead interrogated him as to how he could possibly make it to all the houses in one night, how millions of toys could fit into one sled, and whether or not Rudolph existed. Why couldn’t I just accept that a jolly man in a red suit could deliver presents to all the good boys and girls like every adult had told me?

Yet despite the headaches I undoubtedly caused my parents as a child, many of those same characteristics have helped me to serve my students. Whether it’s fighting for or against a special education placement for a student because I truly believed it to be in their best interest, or questioning why we have to treat a student “the same as we’ve always treated other students like them,” working in schools can be messy. And what our kids need isn’t a world of “yes ma’am,” “go-with-the-flow” people. What they need are advocates, champions, and strong examples of confident adults.

It’s a great reminder for us as we think about working with our more challenging students.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

– Steve Jobs

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Sale :: 3 Million Teacher Sale

TpT Celebration Sale

When I joined a little tiny teacher materials site called TeachersPayTeachers a couple years go, I never would have thought it would become the best place online to buy teacher materials from other teachers. And I definitely wouldn’t have thought they’d have 3 million teachers on board by 2014, but here we are! In celebration for these awesome accomplishments, you can get 28% off at many stores across the site, including One-Stop Counseling Shop Thursday and Friday.

So hurry on over and take advantage of these great savings! What a great way to stock up on high-quality lesson plans and teacher materials for spring.

Enjoy!